Benefits Of Space Exploration Essay, Research Paper
Outline
I. Introduction
A. Critics point to waste and lack of direct impact on
individuals
II. Benefits
A. Environmental
1. Ocean example
2. Ozone depletion
a. TOMS and phase-out of harmful chemicals
b. Anarctic hole in the ozone layer
B. Medical
1. MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
a. Diagnoses
b. Phase-out of exploratory surgery
2. Telemedicine
3. Digital breast Biopsy system
C. Consumer and other products
1. Robotics
2. Cable television industry
3. Teflon
a. Cookware
b. Carpets
c. Clothing
D. Congressional Mandate
1. mandating NASA to share with the private sector
E. Conclusion
1. Critics will remain negative
Kenneth Taylor Taylor 1
Mr. Joyner
English 1102
9 April 1998
The Benefits of Space Exploration
There are critics from many corners who condemn the
amounts of money spent in the pursuit of space. Some say
there is no need to ?waste? money playing around in space
when there are so many people right here on earth who need
help and could better use that money that now goes for space
exploration and experimentation. Morton says, ?The huge
increase in government-financed research and development
that came with Apollo did not increase America’s overall
technological lead. It may even reduced it, by drawing
scientific and commercial talent into heroic fields and away
from prosaic ones?People who would scorn to put extra
dollars into welfare payments are happy to recommend that
scientific explorers be given billions, bewitched by the
frontier dreams of manifest destiny? (Morton 18).
What Morton and others who hold with his views fail to
take into account, however, are the vast benefits that we
have already realized from space exploration. If we never
gained any more benefits from our own space program than we
have already seen, attaining them was well worth the cost in
terms of the monies spent.
We haven?t heard much environmental comment in the past
ten years from environmentalist actors on television
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commercials claiming that the ocean would be dead within
seven years. Trained in acting rather than in oceanography
or marine biology, some of these outspoken, visible souls
were misled by other environmentalists in their claims of
the proximity of catastrophe, and lacked either the ability
or desire to educate themselves on their subjects of
interest before speaking out so publicly.
The earth?s ozone layer is another ?dying ocean? topic.
Unlike the uneducated actors, however, ?scientists around
the world are working to determine how much of the ozone
related change in the atmosphere is caused by humans, and
how much is attributed to natural processes? (Kenitzer
1996). Of the several NASA space labs scattered across the
country, Goddard Space Flight Center is the one most focused
on environmental matters. As such, Goddard teams are
responsible for measuring and monitoring ozone levels found
in the earth?s atmosphere.
Launched in 1978 aboard the Nimbus 7 polar orbiting
satellite, NASA?s ?most visible and best-known ozone
research instrument is the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer
(TOMS)? (Kenitzer 1996) is managed by Goddard and provides
high-resolution maps of global ozone levels. Ozone
depletion data supplied from TOMS has been instrumental in
global agreements to phase out the use of ozone-depleting
chemicals worldwide. The Antarctic ozone hole is seasonal
and cyclical, being most prominent between August and
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October of each year. Though we don?t yet know how much of
the witnessed ozone depletion is natural and how much is
man-made, TOMS data shows that the seasonal depletion grew
every year between its discovery in 1979 and 1994, when the
depletion was the most dramatic ever recorded. Since then,
however, the seasonal depletion has been shown to be much
less severe than in the past (Kenitzer 1996).
Goddard manages other environmental survey systems
using data collected from satellite-mounted mechanisms.
TOMS is simply the most visible because of the popular
interest in the topic of ozone depletion, to the point that
its discussion among the most ill-informed of the staunch
environmentalists has replaced the death of the ocean that
didn?t happen as predicted.
Other benefits of the space program concern diagnostic
and monitoring techniques and devices used in the medical
field. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a direct
outgrowth of the system developed for use on manned space
missions, and today is a standard diagnostic tool in every
major hospital in the country (Cone 18). Since it reveals
the structures of the soft tissues within the body,
radiologists no longer are forced to rely solely on X-rays
in order to make a ?best guess? about what might be
happening within an individual?s body. No longer relegated
to dealing with visual shadows on X-rays, radiologists can
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attain perfect views of internal systems from any
perspective they wish (Cone 18).
MRI has also moved exploratory surgery closer and
closer to the realm of obsolescence. That in itself is a
major benefit?there is growing concern and potential
evidence that cancerous growths only begin their rampant
runs after exposure to the atmosphere. If that theory does
indeed prove to be true, then MRI has already saved lives in
numbers of which no one can measure.
Another medical benefit resulting from the necessary
monitoring of manned space expeditions is that of
telemedicine. ?Telemedicine is the interactive transmission
of medical images and data to provide better health care for
people in remote or ?medically underserved? locations. The
concept has been around since the 1920s and its general
viability has been demonstrated since the 1950s, but wide
adoption was slowed by high costs and technological
shortcomings? (www.sti.nasa.gov). Though the first reasons
for the idea of telemedicine had more to do with providing
services for those in remote areas, the entire focus has
changed in light of the burgeoning cost of health care in
this country in recent years. The transmission of a heart
rate and pattern over phone lines is much more convenient
for the patient with such ailments, and it holds down the
costs of health care without decreasing the quality of care
nor reducing the attention of maintenance procedures. There
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are serious questions about the viability of Medicare
programs; this can be a useful cost-saving measure.
Another benefit derived from the space program is the
digital imaging breast biopsy system. This system images
breast tissue more clearly and efficiently that earlier
methods. Known as stereotactic large-core needle biopsy,
this nonsurgical system was derived from Space Telescope
Technology. The beauty of the new method is that it is less
intrusive, reduces the pain, scarring, radiation exposure,
time, and money associated with surgical biopsies
(www.thespaceplace.com).
The nay-sayers frequently concede that there have been
benefits, but none that affect the population as a whole,
choosing to view improved health care and diagnosis as areas
that affect only those experiencing immediate problems and
totally divorcing themselves from military advantages. Many
of them maintain that there is no practical application in
the lives of people in general, but they neglect to consider
such routine, mundane items as cookware and cable
television.
There may be some households in this country that do
not have at least one Teflon?coated skillet, but there
cannot possibly be many of them. DuPont, the company that
developed Teflon under contract to NASA for use in space
exploration, has gained much in sales and royalties of their
product. Teflon has been used as carpet finishes for
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several years, and now clothing manufacturers are even
joining in (Lord and Brindley 72). This one product has
direct, daily impact on the people of the country, and the
effects on DuPont?s bottom line serves to ever-strengthen
the economy, in whatever percentage.
The cable television industry alone is one of billions,
and is now totally dependent on satellite transmission. It
also has the attention of millions of viewers each and every
day of the week. Again, the percentage of contribution to
the nation?s economy may not in itself be exceedingly
impressive, though that same contribution determines the
fortunes of the businesses involved in it. It is
strengthening, nonetheless.
NASA is mandated by Congress to ?promote the transfer
to the private sector of technologies developed in the
course of aerospace research, and many of the technologies
that make telemedicine possible were originally developed
for acquiring visual information from lunar and planetary
spacecraft? (www.sti.nasa.gov).
Though NASA might not be so willing to share with
private industry all the technological advances their
budgets allow them to achieve without the Congressional
mandate, the fact is that that mandate does exist, and NASA
does comply. In addition, many of the NASA scientists are
the foremost in their fields of expertise and have a high
level of interest in contributing the most good for the most
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people. Of course NASA?s primary interest is a successful
space program, but the technological strides they make are
available for all of us who pay their bills.
The nay-sayers are always with us, but they
consistently refuse to examine the benefits we have already
gained from this country?s space program. Those benefits
have hardly been touched on in a paper of this length: a
study of the robotics advances that prevent workers from
having to be exposed to hazardous environments or relieve
human counterparts from mindless, repetitious manufacturing
processes has not even been addressed here. Neither has
been the invaluable military uses afforded by some of the
many satellites now orbiting the earth (Anderson 19).
There are more (and more) examples of the benefits we
as a nation have realized from advances made by means of the
space program. All the benefits addressed here are
literally down-to-earth; not one mention has been made of
the potentials we have reached in the actual environment of
space itself.
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Anderson, Douglas. ?A Military Look Into Space: the
Ultimate High Ground.,? Army Lawyer, (1995) : November, p.
19.
Cone, Robert J. ?Medical Imaging.,? How the New Technology
Works: A Guide to
High-tech Concepts (1991) :Vol. 1, Sept., p. 18-26.
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spinoff1996/27.html
http://www.thesapceplace.com
Kenitzer, Allen. ?Expanding Horizons with Science and
Discovery.,? Goddard Space Flight Center,
http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/, (1996) : May 20.
Lord, Mary and Brindley, David. ?You Can be Dressed to
Spill.,? U.S. News & World Report, (1997) : May 19, p. 72.
Morton, O. ?To Boldly Go?,? Economist, (1991) : June 15, p.
18.